Tortilla

Tostadas and chips are very versatile ingredients to have in the kitchen. If you don’t want to make them at home, you can buy good quality already made tostadas and chips in the stores these days.

You can make your own tostadas and chips with home made corn tortillas or store bought corn tortillas. In either case, spread the tortillas outside of the refrigerator, in your counter, baking sheet or tray for a half hour and up to a couple hours, so they will dry out a bit before baking, toasting or frying. This helps achieve a nicer crispness as they bake, toast or fry.

If you are going to make chips, cut them into 6 triangles before letting them dry.

Yes, you can buy them already made at the store… but there are few things that can compare to the nurturing and filling sensation of homemade corn tortillas.

And the great thing is: We can buy the premade corn tortilla flour of extraordinary quality in the US these days. So you don’t have to nixtamalize the corn kernels (dry in the sun, cook and soak in hot water with lime, peel and grind to a paste) through a process of more than 36 hours to make your own fresh corn tortilla dough. Here is how you make them:

“Patricia Jinich, an expert on the regional cuisines of Mexico who teaches cooking classes at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, explains the differences between the American tortilla (predominantly flour) and the Mexican tortilla (primarily corn, except in the north): “The burrita or the burra [Spanish for female donkey] has one ingredient inside. It will either have chilorio or machaca. One uses dry meat, the machaca, and the other one uses fresh meat, and it’s a stew. You cook the meat until it is very tender and it’s finished off in an ancho chili sauce. It’s an exquisite ingredient in one freshly made tortilla. That’s it.”